Monday, 15 August 2016

Remember those nights where you would go see some bands play good honest rock music and you would be out all night, getting shit faced? Yes, those nights where you would get home when it was already turning light again, the birds are singing and your ears were still ringing from the music. Exactly, there aren't so many of those nights left. Nowadays the bands start before 21.00 and by 23.00 has to stop so some DJ can take over. This is exactly what rock bands Death Alley and Shaking Godspeed thought as well and therefore came up with the Last Night On Earth festival.

The idea is simple: get a few bands together, start at 23.00 and see who is still standing at 05.00. The thought behind is great: give us old timers a night where we can relive those crazy nights again with great bands, cold beers and party like there's no tomorrow and give a younger generation the chance to experience it as well. To make things even better, the event is at De Marktkantine which is only a short crawl away from where I live.

Of course Death Alley and Shaking Godspeed are playing themselves, but they also got zZz to join them. Peter
Pan Speedrock will play their last show in Amsterdam and to spice things up a bit more, beat poet Joshua Baumgarten will be the glue between the band. By the way, there's a boxing ring as well.

There's no time schedule so we make sure we are there right from the start. We down a few beers, explore the venue a bit and wait for the first band to kick it off. Shaking Godspeed are the ones to start and play a very tight set. They had to say goodbye to their drummer Maarten Rischen but found a great replacement in Ruben van Asselt. Recently the band released a new album Rumspringa where they worked together with music theatre group Orkater and recorded all songs in Dutch. The language may be different but the music is still undeniably Shaking Godspeed. If powerful, groovy rock tracks full of twists and turns and endless boogying doesn't get you going, what will?

Next up are Death Alley while by now the venue has completely filled up. Later singer Douwe Truijens will tell us that the night has sold out, which is great news. The band play a great blend of classic hard rock with psychedelic influences, which means that you can hear songs that remind of Black Sabbath followed by Pink Floyd style jams. Fists are in the air and the band turn the hall into a sweaty beer drenched rock cave.

It looks like this is the highlight for many people since it gets less crowded after their performance. That's not a problem, since that is part of the idea. It's all about partying until your head falls off and you simply have to go home to your bed. At the end, only a few people will be left. In between bands we stroll around the venue, watch a few boxing matches where people are actually hitting each other pretty hard.

By now the stage is being prepared for zZz who have something special up their sleeves, however the change over takes longer than needed. Shaking Godspeed singer and guitarist Wout Kemkens is joining them and the three of them play the best zZz songs where Kemkens is adding psychedelic effects on his guitar. Unfortunately it's not the best zZz show that I've seen and the songs sound a bit messy. I'm not sure if that's because of the experiment with the extra guitar or just because maybe it's not their night. Or maybe it's simply the late hour for everyone. Because of the late start it looks like their set has to be cut short.

By now the number of people has grown smaller and smaller. I'm left all by myself now as well and decide to call it a night too, despite Peter Pan Speedrock's last show. I'm sorry guys but we really need the younger generation to take it over from us. It's still dark when I walk home and no birds are singing yet, but still this was a great night and one of the best ways to experience rock music. Hopefully this will be a returning event and next to Sleazefest and Klikofest it would be a welcoming addition.